Baileys Chocolate Cheesecake Trifles

This is my last blogpost before the Christmas holidays. My blog will be taking a short break and normal services will resume towards the end of January.  Baileys and Christmas are synonymous and it just isn't Christmas without  Baileys! These Baileys chocolate cheesecake trifles are really quick and easy to make and are guaranteed to be a hit at your Christmas parties. You can make them in a large dish to be served family style or serve them in small individual dishes. We had them at our Christmas drinks with our neighbours and everyone thoroughly enjoyed them. It's full of Baileys and has a lovely creamy richness from the cream cheese and whipped cream. The Oreos add a lovely crunch and chocolatey boost.

I'm sending this to We Should Cocoa guest hosted this month by Munchies & Munchkins on behalf of Choclette from Tin and Thyme. The theme this month is Christmas and as mentioned earlier, Baileys and chocolate pretty much equal Christmas to me! 

Wishing everyone a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year! See you all back in Jan 2016 when I will be hosting AlphaBakes.

 cream cheese, cocoa powder, Baileys, whipping cream and oreo cookies 

 Oreo cookie base 

 Cheesecake layer 

 whipped cream layer 

 

Recipe from Life, Love and Sugar

For the cheesecake layer 

450g cream cheese

55g caster sugar

30g cocoa powder

4-6 tablespoons Baileys 

For the whipped cream layer

250mls whipping cream

2-3 tablespoons Baileys

1.5 tablespoon cocoa powder

3 tablespoon icing sugar

Base and topping

15 Oreo cookies, crushed

• Beat the cream cheese, sugar and cocoa powder until smooth. 
• Add in Baileys and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, whip the cream until it starts to thicken then add in the Baileys, cocoa powder and icing sugar and whisk until stiff peak forms. 
• Assemble the trifles by putting a layer of cookie crumbs at the bottom of each dish. Reserve a few tablespoons for the topping. 
• Pipe or spoon the cheesecake layer on top of the cookie crumbs followed by the whipped cream layer. 
• Repeat with a further layer of cheesecake filling followed by the whipped cream filling. 
• Sprinkle the remaining cookie crumbs on top. 

Mini Caramel Apple Cheesecakes with Streusel Topping

I can't believe it's December already! I probably say this every year but where has the year gone? This year seems to have flown by in a flash. I'm sure there's a lot of festive cooking and baking going on worldwide but I'm still in autumn mode with apples. I saw this on pinterest and thought what a great idea. I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to bake these and made them to take to a dinner party. We were really full from all the food but still managed to enjoy one or two of these. It's a good idea baking them in muffin cases as it's a nice individual portion, looks cute and is easy to transport. I also took some to work as did J and both our work colleagues enjoyed them. It's a baked cheesecake filled with fresh apples, streusel topping and a generous drizzle of salted caramel sauce. These are great for the upcoming festive season as you can bake them in advance and they are sure to be a hit at any party. 

I'm sending this to Simply Eggcellent hosted by Dom from Belleau Kitchen as the theme this month is anything goes. This recipe contains 3 large free range eggs. 

It's also going to Recipe of the Week hosted by Emily from A Mummy Too.

 streusel topping 

 digestive biscuit base

 add cheesecake mixture 

 then chopped apples

 top with streusel topping 

 generous drizzle of caramel sauce before serving

  

Recipe adapted slightly from cookingclassy.com

Makes 18 mini cheesecakes

For the base
16 digestive biscuits
2.5 tablespoon caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
85g butter,melted

For the filling 
340g cream cheese
225g caster sugar
3 large free range eggs
3/4 cup creme fraiche
3 or 4 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and chopped into tiny pieces (if the chunks are too big, the apples won't cook fully)
3 tablespoons lemon juice

For the streusel topping
80g plain flour
40g oats
75g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
57g butter

• First prepare the streusel topping by mixing all the ingredients together in a large bowl using your hands until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Cover and chill in the fridge. 
• Preheat the oven to 165C. 
• Prepare the crust by blitzing the digestive biscuits in a food processor or bashing them with a rolling pin in a ziplock bag. 
• Add the melted butter, sugar and cinnamon and stir until mixed. 
• Line 2 muffin tins with 18 cupcake/muffin liners. 
• Divide the mixture evenly between 18 cases and press down gently.
• Bake in the pre heated oven for approximately 5 minutes then remove from the oven and allow to cool.
• Make the filling by beating the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth. 
• Add the eggs one at a time followed by the creme fraiche and mix well.
• Pour the filling (use a measuring jug with a pouring spout) on top of the baked cheesecake crust until about 2/3 full.
• Peel, core and finely chop the apples then toss in fresh lemon juice.
• Place a generous spoonful of apples on top of each cheesecake. 
• Top with the streusel topping. 
• Bake in the pre heated oven for approximately 30-35 minutes or until golden brown. 
• Allow to cool completely then chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. 
• Just before serving, pour a generous amount of caramel sauce on top of the cheesecake. I used ready made caramel sauce but you can also make your own. 

No Bake Nutella Cheesecake

This is a really quick and easy no bake recipe. It has a creamy Nutella cream cheese filling and an oreo cookie base. I served it with grated chocolate and fresh strawberries. It is absolutely delicious and I'd eat this everyday if I could! It's full of stuff that's bad for you which is probably why it tastes so good!

I used up lots of leftovers for this recipe which is sort of how it came about. I had an open packet of oreo biscuits from making my Valentine Penguin Oreos. I also had an opened jar of Nutella from recent bakes and a tub of cream cheese that was near expiry. Therefore I am sending this to the No Waste Food Challenge hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

 

 I love my new set of glass dishes which I saw on Kate's blog and she told me she got them from Ikea. Thanks Kate! 

The recipe is slightly made up and I can't remember the exact amounts!

Roughly 8 or 10 oreo cookies, crushed
approximately 30g butter, melted (might need more)
200g cream cheese
50g icing sugar
200mls double cream (could add a little more if you prefer)
approximately 150g - 200g Nutella (or add as much as you like!)

• Place the oreo cookies in a ziplock bag and bash with a rolling pin. Alternatively you can blitz it in a food processor. 
• Place the butter in a small bowl and melt in the microwave. 
• Stir the butter into the crushed cookies.You may need a little more butter if the mixture is too dry.
• Press the oreo butter mixture into the bottom of your serving dish and level with a spoon. 
• Place in the fridge to set for at least 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile beat the cream until stiff peaks form. Scoop into a large bowl and set aside. 
• Next beat the cream cheese and icing sugar.
• Add in the nutella and continue beating. 
• Now spoon the mixture out into your bowl of whipped cream and mix with a spoon until smooth (don't use the mixer at this stage or the cream might split)
• Spoon the Nutella/cream cheese mixture on top of the cookie base and leave to chill in the fridge.
• Decorate with grated chocolate and fresh strawberries. 

Mary Berry Lemon Cheesecake

Last week I had a craving for cheesecake. A lemon cheesecake to be precise. I remember watching Mary Berry demonstrate this cheesecake so I decided to look up the recipe. It's a really simple no bake recipe which took all of 10 minutes to put together. The longest wait is for the cheesecake to firm up and we were too impatient so it was still a little soft when we first tried it. It firmed up nicely in the fridge for the next day. I used Hobnobs for the base instead of ginger biscuits as I'm not a fan of ginger and used different berries to decorate. The result was divine. It's a really creamy, rich, lemony cheesecake and I loved the crunch of the hobnob base. This would be great for a dinner party and will be sure to impress.

 cheesecake base on left, cheese filling on right 

 I just couldn't wait for the cheesecake to set properly so it's a little soft but it tasted divine! 

Recipe is available on Mary Berry online

I made a few minor changes listed below

I used a large cake tin 23cm which resulted in a very flat cheesecake, I'd recommend using a 18cm or less cake tin.

200g hobnob biscuits, crushed
100g butter, melted
500g mascarpone cheese
325g jar luxury lemon curd
Juice of 1 small lemon
Fresh strawberries and blueberries, to decorate
Icing sugar, to dust

• Place the biscuits in a ziplock bag, seal and bash with a rolling pin.
• Melt the butter in a microwave.
• Add the melted butter to the biscuits and mix well.
• Press firmly into the base of your cake tin making sure not to go up the edges.
• In a large bowl, mix the mascarpone cheese, lemon curd and lemon juice until smooth.
• Pour over the biscuit base and smooth the top with a spatula.
• Chill in the fridge for 4 hours but preferably overnight.
• Decorate with fresh berries and a sprinkling of icing sugar before serving. 

Blackberry, Lemon and Vanilla Cheesecake

J's favourite fruit is blackberries and he is always asking for a blackberry dessert. Luckily I had a large box of blackberries from my colleague's garden in the freezer. I've made numerous crumbles with them but this time I wanted to make something a little special. J also loves cheesecake hence this blackberry, lemon and vanilla cheesecake. The inspiration for this recipe was a lovely two layer cheesecake but unfortunately mine looks nothing like that! However, it tasted heavenly and that's what really counts. I made a vanilla layer using vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste and a blackberry & lemon layer. The blackberry layer was a little tart and paired perfectly with the sweeter vanilla layer. 

I'm sending this to  Four Seasons Food hosted by Louisa from Eat Your Veg and co hosted by Anneli from Delicieux. The theme this month is "getting fruity".

It also fits in to Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. This challenge was created to highlight produce from local sources. The blackberres in this recipe came from a colleague's garden. 

 digestive biscuit base 

  blackberry mix on the left and vanilla mix on the right 

 ready to go in the oven 

 after baking for about 25 minutes 

 adding vanilla mix on top which mostly sunk to the middle, pushing the blackberry layer to the outside 

 

Recipe adapted from ivillage.com
40g butter
300mls sour cream
18-20 digestive biscuits
900g cream cheese
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
220g caster sugar
180mls milk
4 eggs
360g frozen blackberries
zest and juice of 1 lemon

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Melt the butter in the microwave or in a small saucepan.
• Blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor and stir in the melted butter. 
• Press into the bottom of a lined 23cm springform tin making sure that the biscuits also go partway up the sides of the tin.
• Place in the fridge to chill whilst you make the filling. 
• Beat the cream cheese and sugar until combined. 
• Add in the milk then beat in the eggs, one at a time.
• Add in the sour cream and continue mixing until smooth.
• Divide the mixture evenly between 2 large bowls. 
• In a food processor, puree approximately 300g of the blackberries with the zest and juice of 1 lemon. Pour into 1 of the cream cheese mix and stir in the whole blackberries.
• In the 2nd cream cheese mix, add the vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste and mix well.
• Pour the blackberry filling on to the biscuit base and bake for approximately 25 minutes  (recipe said 10 minutes but even 25 minutes was not enough for me - it probably needs 35-40 minutes) 
• Remove the cheesecake from the oven and pour the vanilla filling on top.
• Return to the oven and continue baking for another hour or until the top is set.
• Chill in the fridge before serving. 

Rhubarb and Redcurrant Cheesecake

Hi everyone. Apologies for the long silence on my blog. I've been away on holidays and had family visiting. It's been a hectic few weeks and I've not had a chance to bake at all. Plus the weather has been so hot, it's really hard to motivate myself to get in the kitchen. Turning the oven on makes the kitchen feel like an oven! However, I couldn't miss making an AlphaBake entry particularly as I am hosting this month.

This is a really quick no bake recipe and perfect for the hot summer weather. The inspiration is from the Opies website which I adapted slightly to suit my requirements. Opies sent me a lovely selection of goodies to review which includes this Rhubarb & Redcurrant compote. It has a tart taste of rhubarb and is a gorgeous deep red colour. It worked really well in a cheesecake as it complemented the sweet, soft cheese and crunchy biscuit base. 

As mentioned, I am entering this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month. My co host is Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is R for Rhubarb and Redcurrant. 

As rhubarb is currently in season, I'm also sending it to Simple and in Season guest hosted by Sally from My Custard Pie this month for Ren.

Four Seasons Food goes Al Fresco this month and this cheesecake is perfect for an outdoor party or picnic. It's really quick and easy to throw together and will definitely be a cooling and refreshing dessert for everyone. This lovely challenge is hosted by Louisa fromEat Your Veg and Anneli from Delicieux. 

Finally to a new challenge this month called The Vegetable Palette hosted by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. This month's challenge is Summer Reds which is perfect for rhubarb and redcurrants.

 

Recipe adapted from Opies website

16 digestive biscuits, crushed
50g butter, melted
250g mascarpone cheese
200g cream cheese
50g icing sugar
1 x 400g jar of Rhubarb and redcurrant compote

• Blitz the digestive biscuits in a food processor or place in a seal bag and bash it with a rolling pin.
• Melt the butter in a small pan or in the microwave.
• Pour melted butter into the biscuit mixture and mix. 
• Place a layer of the biscuit on serving dish and place in the fridge to set.
• Place the mascarpone cheese and cream cheese in a large bowl.
• Sift over the icing sugar and mix well.
• Spoon the sweetened cheese mixture on top of the biscuit base.
• Pour over a jar of rhubarb & redcurrant compote.
• Chill before serving. 

Disclaimer: I was sent a jar of Rhubarb & Redcurrant compote from Opies for review purposes. A positive review was not required and all opinions expressed are my own. This is not a paid post.